Daily Dothttp://www.dailydot.com/Daily Dot Articleen-usThu, 27 Sep 2012 16:46:07 +0000Instagram puts Scumbag Steve on its search term blacklisthttp://www.dailydot.com/news/scumbag-steve-instagram-blacklist-search/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/91/20/9120b176143ed464b654b744943ac756.jpg'></p><p>
From time to time, photo-sharing app Instagram blocks pornographic and profane hashtags from search to help comply with its own nudity-banning <a href="http://instagram.com/about/legal/terms/">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
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But <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/video/scumbag-steve-blake-boston-roflcon-interview/">Blake Boston</a>, the face of popular image macro <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/scumbag-steve">Scumbag Steve</a>, is calling the platform&rsquo;s latest hashtag blocking decision &ldquo;meme censorship.&rdquo;</p>
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&ldquo;Seriously, are we living in the U.S,&rdquo; he wrote on <a href="http://therealscumbagsteve.tumblr.com/post/32374588576/seriously-are-we-living-in-the-u-s-cuz-this">Tumblr</a>. &ldquo;Cuz this shit is whacked. Scumbag Steve hash tag on instagram is considered too close to porn. Don&rsquo;t censor the fucking Internet!&rdquo;</p>
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Boston told the Daily Dot that he doesn&rsquo;t know exactly why the <a href="http://web.stagram.com/tag/scumbagsteve/">#scumbagsteve</a> tag disappeared on Instagram yesterday, but that it happened shortly after the media accused Instagram of serving as an <a href="http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/09/25/parents-express-concern-over-instagram-due-to-sexually-explicit-images/">unintentional porn haven</a>.</p>
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&ldquo;I guess they&#39;re cracking down on unsavory hash tags and mine got aced along with porn etc. weird huh? Search it= no results,&rdquo; he <a href="http://twitter.com/BlakeBoston617/status/251105845461520384">tweeted</a>.</p>
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Boston may cry &ldquo;meme censorship,&rdquo; but as far as we could tell, he is the only meme affected by Instagram&rsquo;s hashtag blacklist. Searches for <a href="http://web.stagram.com/tag/doublerainbowguy">#doublerainbowguy</a>, <a href="http://web.stagram.com/tag/overlyattachedgirlfriend/">#overlyattachedgirlfriend</a>, and even the slightly suggestive sounding <a href="http://web.stagram.com/tag/bedintruder/">#bedintruder</a> are untouched.</p>
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The Daily Dot was unable to reach Instagram&mdash;which has <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/09/11/instagram-100-million/">100 million users</a> and fewer than 20 employees&mdash;for comment.</p>
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However, Phil Gonz&aacute;lez of the popular Instagram user community Instagramers was able to shed some light on the hashtag blocks. Gonz&aacute;lez said the first tags to be blocked were about sexual topics, and the blocking began in January 2011.</p>
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&ldquo;Before then, it was impossible to find photos through a &lsquo;tag search,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When that became available, so did the possibility to find tags related to &lsquo;delicate&rsquo; topics... and many of them disappeared.&rdquo;</p>
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Occasionally, Gonz&aacute;lez said, Instagram has blocked a tag by mistake. Even &ldquo;#Instagram&rdquo;&mdash;currently the platform&rsquo;s most popular tag <a href="http://web.stagram.com/p/640008281_3126653">according to Webstagram</a>&mdash;was once accidentally blacklisted.</p>
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&ldquo;I remember one day people mentioned it was impossible to tag #instagram and then recently <a href="http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/09/06/is-instagram-censoring-the-iphoneography-hashtag/">#iphoneography</a>, which didn&rsquo;t make any sense,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think that in these two cases, the tags overloaded the servers with information Instagram didn&rsquo;t think was relevant.&rdquo;</p>
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#Instagram and #iphoneography are back, but it&rsquo;s not yet clear whether blocking #scumbagsteve was also a mistake.</p>
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<em>Photo by <a href="http://filmgirl.tumblr.com/post/23496306916/webby-with-scumbag-steve-taken-with-instagram">Christina Warren</a>/Tumblr</em></p>
lauren.rae.orsini@gmail.com (Lauren Rae Orsini)Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:46:07 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/scumbag-steve-instagram-blacklist-search/News